The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-02-04

The vitality of weed seeds is vel
known. The means OF spreading ar.
50 various that it is not strange tina
careful farmers are much annoyed b,
their spread, not so much by their owl
negligence as by that of slack farmers
How fast the seeds Of weeds increas,
may easily be seen by experiments mad,
at the Ohio Experiment Station. UpoT
this subject the director says:
A careful count Of the seeds in eact
OF large number of silicles in Shep
herds Purse showed variation of from
eighteen to thirty-four. the whole mum
Der counted averaging little more thar
twenty-five each. Fifteen hundred sill
cles were found upon medrum-sizeC
plant and taking twenty-five as the
number Of seeds in each silicle we founC
81 800 seeds in single plant.
A single plant of dandelion had forty
nine ripened heads. The seeds, OF
rather the achenia, in each one of these
heads were counted. The smallest mum.
Der found was 206. the largest 272; the
average for the forty-six heads being
BAT. This gives IL, 103 seeds from one
plant
There are two seeds in each silicle Of
wild pepper-grass. On one plant, just
an average sized specimen, $500 sill
cles were counted, making 49, seeds
from a single plant
The seeds on one plant of corn Crom-
well, or wheat thief, were counted and
found to be just few short of 1000.
The flower heads of ten plants of the
common thistle were counted. The
average for each was 203. The seeds,
or achenes. of five heads were then
counted. The largest number found in
single head was 1856, the smallest 287:
the average for the five heads being 322.
This gives 1866 as fair estimate OF
the number of seeds produced by an
average thistle. as it is found In central
Ohio.
The flower heads on two small plants
of chamomile were counted. One con-
tanned 100. the other 1913. The achenes
in five heads of the former averaged
139, with a range from 121 to 1913. The
achenes in five heads of the latter av-
eraged ITO, with range of SO to 40.
Thus, one plant contained 1890 seeds
and the other 1880.
Butter weed, velvet leaf, Indian NAL
low, ETC., contained 203 ripened seed
pods. Ten of these, taken without Sc
lection, gave an average of 423. The
plant contained, therefore, 1857 seeds.
A single average specimen of rag
weed was found, by actual count, to
contain 1886 seeds.
Two specimens of common purslane
were examined. One contained 1850
pyxes, the other 3,24O. The seeds in
ten pyxes of the former averaged 115.
Multiplying the actual number of pyxes
by 115 gives 305,900 seeds. Counting
the seeds in twenty pyxes of the latter
specimen gave an average pyxis of 100,
the variation in numbers ranging from
SO to 1853. Multiplying 3,240, the actual
number of seed capsules, by 120, the
average number of seeds found in the
120 capsules counted, gives product
of 388.800. the total number of seeds in
the plant
Five plants of common plantain av
eraged eighteen spikes of flowers each.
The spikes averaged $40 capsules each
the capsules averaged six and a hall
seeds each, making 1920 seeds pei
plant.
Ten heads of burdock picked without
selection contained 685 achenes or seeds
rhe heads on five ordinary sized plants
were counted and they were found to
average $50. Multiplying this by the
average number of seeds found in each
head gives 39,087 seeds per plant.